Glass and Amber Beads from the Late Roman Iron Age in Scania BY KARIN LUNDQVIST Abstract Glass and amber beads are colourful artefacts that have been much less discussed than other accessories such as fibulae. Like these, the beads were part of the dress that signalled the wearers’ social and economic status. In the article, beads from 25 graves from modern-day Scania, dated to the Roman Iron Age periods C1 and C2, are presented. In many ways they show a varied and unique expression, strengthening the view that the less ostentatious graves in Scania, in comparison with Zealand, are due to a more stable community rather than to a lack of resources. Introduction Graves and grave inventories are frequently 1994; Stjernquist 2002a; Stjernquist 2002b; used materials in archaeological research Stjernquist 2003), but never made a thorough (for an excellent summary of what has been survey. The aim of the article is to improve on written on Scania, see Björk 2005). Especially this by presenting some of the Scanian graves fibulae, ceramics and weapons have been with beads from the Late Roman Iron Age and studied and published in great detail. Glass to show their value as a source of knowledge and amber beads have mostly been treated about social status and identity. Much more much more sparsely and often neglected. can be said about the topic treated here, The large variation and the lack of an all- about trade, and about the beads themselves encompassing typology have probably not and their manufacture. I hope to return to the helped (cf. Olldag 1994; Knöfler 2011). beads and the graves in the future. The situation has improved during the last In the article I discuss beads found in 20 years when more and more Danish beads graves in Scania dated to the 3rd and early 4th have been published in consistent ways, with century CE, i.e. periods C1(b) and C2 of the good photographs (e.g. Ethelberg 2000; Boye Roman Iron Age. Approximately 50 graves in 2009) and analysis (Lund Hansen 2009). Scania can be dated to this time span (number From a Scanian perspective Berta Stjernquist based on the catalogue in Björk 2005). I will touched on the subject in several articles about present 25 of these, from 16 different sites, in amber and rich female graves (Stjernquist this article (Fig. 1; Table I). Very few beads LUND ARCHAEOLOGICAL REVIEW 24-25 | 2018-2019 63 can be dated earlier than C1b, and sometime majority of them were worn around the neck or during late C2 – early C3 the bead fashion suspended from fibulae or needles at, or close changed (the changing fashion on Zealand to, the shoulders, I think it is very unlikely. described in Lund Hansen 2009 and Boye This does not mean that beads and other & Lund Hansen 2013 is clearly visible in ornaments only had an aesthetic function; Scania as well; Lundqvist 2018). There is no their symbolic value was probably rather high strict limit, however, and it would have been as well. Dress – clothes, accessories, hairstyles possible both to add and to exclude. The and other means of covering or adorning the presentation is based on a hands-on survey body – is a powerful means of signalling who of the known glass and amber beads from we are (or wish to be). We use it to express graves dated to the Early Iron Age in Scania. our identity and social standing at both Comparisons are primarily made based on the individual and group level. It is limited by Danish material found in the catalogues in what is accepted in our community and by Olldag 1994, Ethelberg 2000 and Lind 2010, what is available for economic and practical and some readily available articles. There are reasons. The supply is much bigger today, but thus a lot of beads outside Scania that I have the main force is the same as it was during the not seen or read about, but the inhabitants of Early Iron Age Scania of course had contacts with other regions as well, not least across the Baltic. All glass beads, and probably at least the more elaborate amber beads, are imports in this period. Where they came from is a very interesting question that is outside the scope of the present study. Many were probably made in what today would be southern Germany, but beads came from as far away as today’s Ukraine and the Middle East (Spaer 1993; Olldag 1994; Thomsen 2002; Cieśliński 2009). In the article, glass bead types are specified according to the type scheme in Olldag 1994. The reason for this is that I consider it more in line with what I find in Scania than the often used scheme in Tempelmann-Mączyńska Fig. 1. The sites discussed in the article. 1. 1985. None of them covers all the variations Balkåkra, Balkåkra parish; 2. Bodarp, Bodarp found. Some glass beads and the amber beads parish; 3. Lilla Markie, Bösarp parish; 4. Bjärsgård in general are easiest to find in Lind 2010. park, Klippan parish; 5. Löderup, Löderup parish; 6 Simris, Simris parish; 7. Gårdlösa, Smedstorp Beads, like rings and bracelets, are dress parish; 8. Hammarsnäs, Stora Hammar parish; accessories with no practical function. Even 9. Köpingebro, Stora Köpinge parish; 10. the most elaborate, and possibly rather Bandyklubban district, Strövelstorp parish; 11. impractical, fibula was still used for keeping Kabbarp, Djurslöv parish; 12. Tottarp, Djurslöv parts of the clothing together. Perhaps we parish; 13. Trelleborg; 14. Uppåkra, Uppåkra cannot completely rule out a function of the parish; 15. Valleberga, Valleberga parish; 16. beads as some kind of rosaries, but since the Skillinge, Östra Hoby parish. 64 KARIN LUNDQVIST Table I. The graves and the beads treated in the article Balkåkra, Balkåkra sn SHM 16442 O 2208: 2; O 2407 :2, O 3300: 19 Bodarp, Bodarp sn SHM 7667 O 2211:10; amber unspec: 1 Bodarp, Bodarp sn SHM 8327F O 2211:1 Lilla Markie, Bösarp sn SHM 19757b O 2413:2 Bjärsgård park, Klippan sn LUHM 29122 O 1310: 1; O 3300: 1; glass melted: 1; rock crystal: 1; lost: 1 (formerly Gråmanstorp sn) Löderup, Löderup sn, Grave 8 LUHM 32125 O 1104: 4; O 1106: 1; O 1107: 1; O 1112:1; O 1202: 1; O 1203: 100; O 1212: 8; O 1213: 1; O 1306: 1; O 1307: 3; O 1308: 4; O 1309: 3; O 1310: 8; O 1312: 1; O 2208: 2; glass unspec: 7; glass fragm; Lind 59: 125; Lind 61: 3; Lind 65: 1; Lind 69: 11 Simris, Simris sn, Grave 41 LUHM 29155 O 2203: 3 Simris, Simris sn, Grave 47 LUHM 29155 O 1212b: 3; O 1308: 5; O 1311?: 1; O 3300: 7; Lind 57: 3; gold-in-glass unspec: 3; Lind 59: 6; Lind 62: 3; glass fragm Gårdlösa, Smedstorp sn, Grave 2 SHM 25302 O 1104?: 1; O 1107:1; O 1111:2; O 1214:1; O 1303:1; O 1308:3; O 1309:1; O 2201:1; O 2212: 1; O 2407:1; O 2413:2; O 2415:2 O 3300:6; Lind 12:2; Lind 60a:1; Lind 66:1; silver spiral: 1; silver tube: 1; glass unspec: 3 Gårdlösa, Smedstorp sn, Grave 3 LUHM without O 3300: 3 + fragm; Lind 59:1 number Gårdlösa, Smedstorp sn, Grave 4 LUHM without O 1104: 1; O 1301: 2; O 1308: 1; O 1310: 1; O 2203: 2; O 2305: 1; amber number rounded: 1; amber unspec: 1 Gårdlösa, Smedstorp sn, Grave LUHM without O 1111: 1; O 2407: 1; Lind 59:1 14 number Hammarsnäs, Stora Hammar sn, SHM 21706:28 glass unspec mosaic: 1 Grave 13 Hammarsnäs, Stora Hammar sn, SHM 21706:43 O 1104: 1; O 1106: 1; O 1109: 1; O 1204: 9; O 1307: 4; O 1309: 1; Grave 87 O 1312: 1; O 2203: 5; O 2204: 1; O 2208: 1; O 2211: 1; Koch 50: 1; Lind 59: 1; Lind 60: 1; glass unspec: 2 Hammarsnäs, Stora Hammar sn, SHM 20443:23 O 1109: 1; O 3300: 14; Lind 59: 2 Grave 95 Hammarsnäs, Stora Hammar sn, SHM 20816:83 O 2211: 1 Grave 135 Köpingebro, Stora Köpinge sn LUHM 31437 O 3300: 39 Strövelstorp, Strövelstorp sn, LUHM 30544 Lind 59: 33; amber rounded: 1 A1961 Djurslöv, Tottarp sn LUHM 28573 Lind 59: 49; silver spiral: 8 Kabbarp, Tottarp sn SHM 11392 O 1104: 4; O 1109: 1; O 1110: 4; O 1204: 1; O 1212: 2; O 1214: 5; O 1305: 1; O 1306: 4; O 1307: 4; O 1310: 2; O 2203: 3; O 2208: 1; O 2212?:1; O 2219: 2; glass unspec: 1; Lind 59: 2; Lind 69: 34; amber fragm Trelleborg LUHM without O 1203: 1; O 1311: 1; O 2203: 1; Lind 59: 6; Lind 62: 1; Lind 69: 1; number Lind 70: 1; silver spiral: 1; amber unspec: 1; amber fragm Uppåkra, Uppåkra sn LUHM 30001 O 1104: 3, O 1107: 1; O 1204: 6; O 1212: 4; O 1307: 3; O 1308: 1; O 1310: 1; O 2208: 1; O 3300: 1; Lind 59: 5; Lind 62: 1; Lind 65: 1; amber rounded: 2; amber unspec: 1; bronze ring: 1; glass fragm Valleberga 24, Valleberga sn, LUHM 28945 O 1208: 2; amber rounded: 3 Grave 1 Valleberga 49, Valleberga sn LUHM 32326 O 1104: 5; O 1203: 1; O 1204: 20; O 1308: 5; O 1312: 4; O 2204: 5; O 2208: 1; Lind 59: 14; Lind 60: 1; Lind 61: 4; amber barrel-shaped: 1 Skillinge, Östra Hoby sn LUHM 28981 O 1308: 1; O 3300: 21 LUND ARCHAEOLOGICAL REVIEW 24-25 | 2018-2019 65 Roman Iron Age, and is and has been in every The grave from Balkåkra was found during society.